Apparently everyone woke up on the right side of the bed this episode, because every eligible bachelor in town starts lining up at Ra-im’s door, and fighting each other like the ten-year olds that they are. Oska wins for Best Smile, Jong-soo wins for Most Embarrassed, and Joo-won wins for Sparkliest Boxers. Yup. You heard me.

EPISODE 10 RECAP

Joo-won discovers Ra-im and Oska mid-flirt outside her apartment, where he’s clearly been waiting for her like the stalker that he is. The best part is that Oska and Ra-im gang up on him like a pair of older siblings, just to rub it in his face. Wait, scratch that. The best part is the new tracksuit, this time hand-stitched by French artisans. HA.

Ra-im: “Why are you wearing an ajumma’s long underwear?” Heeeeee. She adds that she told him quite clearly that she didn’t want to see him anymore, so he’s either got rocks for brains, or he’s REALLY REALLY into her. I just love her right now. She’s so much better as a sassypants than the over-apologetic meek girl.

She pointedly tells “oppa” to drive home safely, and walks right past Joo-won without a word. He follows her to her door like a little kid, whining that he didn’t get a proper goodbye. She slams her front gate in his face, and he screams, “My nose is higher than other people’s! It could’ve gotten hurt! Didn’t you think of that?” Haha. Even in his rants, this guy is all about how awesome HE is. It kills me.

She goes in without a word, and Ah-young gives her a package—it’s some books she ordered. She tells Ah-young that she went to someone’s house and it had a library filled with books, and it made her wonder if he had read them all, what he was thinking when he read them, and if she read them too, she might find some truth about him that she may have missed before.

Aw. How freaking ADORABLE is that? Trying to know a person (who is outwardly unknowable) by reading the same books as him? That’s the cutest and nerdiest thing ever. It hits me right here.

She puts the copy of Alice in Wonderland on her shelf, and we see that she’s started a little collection of her own. Next to her collection of action DVDs is the beginnings of her own mini library, with the likes of 1984 and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I love that juxtaposition of their two personalities sitting side by side on her shelf. Strangely enough, it looks a lot like my bookshelf, which perhaps means I have a split personality, but that’s neither here nor there.

Joo-won follows Oska home to ask if he really meant that stuff he said to Ra-im. He throws the question of sincerity right back at Joo-won, asking if he can really take responsibility for his feelings, and for Ra-im. Joo-won: “Responsibility? Did you take responsibility for all the women you dated?” Oska: “That’s why I get cursed at.” Heh. Point taken.

Oska tells him to be honest about himself—that he isn’t the type to give up everything for a woman because he doesn’t feel the need to. He couldn’t even handle the bag incident, let alone the wave of terror that’s bound to come from his mother. He points out rather correctly that Joo-won thinks of marriage like a business deal; hence he should just meet some girl more like him, and stop with Ra-im before she gets hurt. Aw, I sort of love Oska oppa coming to her defense.

He questions Joo-won about his motives with Seul too, citing the handholding incident from the golf course. He wonders if he’s planning to marry Seul and just have some fun with Ra-im: “Rotten bastard. Take your hands off of both of them. They’re both too good for you.” Dayum. And woot, Oska! I love that Joo-won has SOMEONE in his life that’ll tell it like it is.

Joo-won sits alone in his empty palace, brooding over his hyung’s words. He puts Ra-im’s map back together, and above his own name writes, “Cowardly.”

Ra-im stays up to read Alice in Wonderland, and this time the titles on her shelf form a little poem:

Alice in wonderland
Like a fairytale
The night that Eun-ha shot through the galaxy
A bad boy is standing there
This insignificant melancholy
She walked at the pace of memory

(I’m approximating on the third title, which is a play on the name Eun-ha, the same word for galaxy, or Milky Way—it could be The Night that the Milky Way Pierced the Galaxy, but that makes no sense. Hence, the pun.)

Jong-soo records himself reading the script for Dark Blood and gives it to Ra-im, the helpfulness of which I don’t really understand, as he’s reading a script in English, in English, but anyway, she’s touched, and she trains fervently for the role.

Both Joo-won and Ra-im go back to their daily lives, and as Joo-won gets ready for work the next day, he discovers a little memo that Ra-im left behind—a printout of instructions on how to tie a tie. Ha. Something about that stirs Joo-won, whether it reminds him of the body swap, or her.

Oska gets nagged to go to his fan-signing, which he’s afraid to do, given the current plagiarism scandal. Meanwhile, Seul is still brooding over being falsely accused for leaking the song, but when her friend points out that she’s still got the wherewithal to get her hair done, Seul reminds her that even if the world is crumbling around her, the one thing a woman must guard is her appearance. Ha, the fervor of your superficiality is astounding. Truly.

Oska holds his fan-signing, which is depressingly spare at first, but a small group of fervent fans show up to cheer him on. He decides to give them signatures as Choi Woo-young, and not Oska, for their belief in him as a person. Seul decides to show up in line, and asks for a signature addressed to her as his forever love, and without a reply, he writes, “To Yoon Seul, Thank you for loving me all this time. –Oska” She reads it with tears outside.

Joo-won goes to the opera, where he of course buys three seats so that he can use both armrests for himself. (Okay, I will confess to secretly wishing I could do this, but never having the gall. Or the money, let’s be real.)

He imagines Ra-im sitting beside him, and spends the entire opera thinking of her. The next day he tells Secretary Kim that he couldn’t concentrate at all; this time he’ll need an entire row of seats, to keep the riffraff at bay. Okay, now you’re just being crazy.

He leads a presentation for a new resort that he’s got in the works, which utilizes the natural mountainside surroundings as a retreat. Director Park steals some of his thunder as soon as he finds out that Joo-won’s grandfather is stopping by for a peek.

Joo-won comes home to find Dr. Lee waiting, having just stopped by because he strangely hasn’t been calling all the time, like he usually does. She asks if he hasn’t run out of his meds, which reminds him that he hasn’t taken his meds for a while now…how was it that he slept in that tiny apartment without them?

He shakes it off and says that it seems he doesn’t need them anymore, and doesn’t explain the rest since he doesn’t actually want to be committed for being insane. Yes, I would agree. Best not to tell your shrink that you’ve been running around in a woman’s body.

He asks if people usually need to give up something in order to get something that they really want. She says yes, since usually the thing you want so ardently is outside your means. He scoffs that anything, let alone “that woman” is outside his means, or above his social standing.

Just then, a delivery arrives, and it’s all of the stuff he had bought for Ra-im’s apartment. He stares down at all of the returned boxes, and rants that she has to be so righteous and proud. Dr. Lee points out that it’s not what most women would do, and tells him that she IS out of his league. HA! Damn straight!

Oska breathes a sigh of relief as the plagiarism scandal gets reneged, and when Seul meets with Tae-sun, we find out why—Tae-sun was the original songwriter of the copied song. She offers him a contract to do any music the way he wants.

On a snowy day, Joo-won sits at home and reads Alice in Wonderland, and then plays with a smurfs app that repeats everything he says: “Omo, Kim Joo-won-sshi, do you know how long I’ve waited for your call? I miss you like crazy.” Aw, such a lonely little boy.

He goes for a walk in the snow, and then comes upon a shiny new toy that’s fun in two ways—as a video game, and as a means of torturing Oska. Oska comes over fuming that Joo-won’s snaked the arcade game he’s waited three months to get, and when he tries to take it back, Joo-won threatens to out his scandalous pictures with his ex Chae-rin. They strike a deal for Joo-won to keep it for three months, after which he’ll return the game AND the original pictures. Ha. These two. Giant kids with way too much time and money.

Oska tells Joo-won again to be honest with himself about Ra-im: “Stop with your Lovers in Paris cosplay and go back to your normal self!” Hahaha.

Joo-won actually HAS decided to stop seeing her…but not right now. Pfft. He says that he likes her too much because she’s curious and new, but that he’ll eventually probably grow tired of her, and she’ll become like every other woman in his eyes—the typical nine out of ten women who are just common. Um, shouldn’t your obsession with her and her constant refusal of your advances tell you that she’s probably that ONE in ten that you’ve never encountered before? Moron.

He thinks a few months of seeing her will do. Gah. The only reason I’m tolerating you right now is because you’re just digging your own grave. A few months of seeing her will only make you more in love with her, genius.

Oska calls him out for being a bastard, and Joo-won just sticks to his ridiculous obsession with The Little MerMistress, refusing to face the fact that HE’s the one who’s in love with her, and not the other way around. He plans to date her for a few months and have her disappear, as per Operation: MerMistress.

To that end, he shows up to the action school day after day, with some new flimsy excuse to see her: first it’s that he gained weight while she was driving his body around, and now he wants his abs back. Next he gives her the boxers she wore and washed while she was in his body, telling her to wear them. One pair is actually SEQUINED. No, really.

He then shows up to complain that he’s constipated—what did she feed his body? Pwahaha. At each turn, she calls him crazy, and eventually perverted. Yeah, I’d have to agree. Finally, he shows up to complain that his department store’s profits are down, due to something she signed off on, heart-signature and all.

She tells him that she was just following Secretary Kim’s advice, to which he says he’ll have to fire Secretary Kim then. She doesn’t want him to get fired so he offers up a trade that he gets to come see her whenever he wants, and she’ll greet him with love and gratitude and joy. Pfft. Yeah, she’ll greet you with swearing, is what she’ll do.

She makes one motion with her latte towards his be-laced tracksuit, and he freaks out, “Get mad at ME, not the clothes!” Heh.

She takes a sip and ends up with foam on her lip, which he calls out as a typical coy maneuver when women are around men. She reaches to wipe it off, but he grabs her hand out of the way and leans in, getting up out of his seat. With a soft kiss, he licks the foam off her lips. Yowza.

How is it possible that you can be so unattractively metro about your tracksuit one minute, and then make my stomach do flips with a move like that, the next? Gah.

She makes a move to hit him, and he warns her that from now on, if she hits him, he’ll do the same thing (kiss her, not hit her back). Awesome. I see lots of hitting and kissing in their future.

The action school gears up for a sageuk shoot, and Joo-won manages to tag along, with help from Ra-im’s sunbae. His outfits as an extra are just…priceless, and he tries to get his sunbae to switch outfits with him claiming that “there must be something wrong.” Heh. Serves you right to play a lowly commoner.

He’s terrible, naturally, since he refuses to lie down on the dirt to play dead (choosing instead to lie down on TOP of another dead body), and using the opportunity to attack Jong-soo, who’s on the same side in battle. Keh.

Ra-im comes out, dressed in her Damo costume, and Joo-won goes gaga. So cool to see Ha Ji-won playing Ra-im, playing this role. She does a beautiful swordfight with Jong-soo in the snow, and Joo-won watches in awe from the sidelines.

In voiceover, he remembers a line from Alice in Wonderland, about looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars, so that everything seems like a fairytale. Joo-won: “I must be suffering from the same thing. Otherwise, why is every second with that woman, who means nothing, like a fairytale?”

At lunch, he asks why on earth Ra-im does this work, when no one will ever know she was in this film, or reward her with money or anything else. She says that he’s right, but that her fellow stuntmen will remember her as she’ll remember them. She asks him how many people will remember him, or break their arm in his place. Naturally, he can say nothing, the man with zero friends.

She adds that it’s the work they’ve chosen. “What are you to judge what we do? Who the hell are you?”

The action school goes out after the shoot for some gopchang (pig intestine lining) which you’ll remember Joo-won refused to eat the last time. Ra-im does the Korean thing of putting some on everyone’s plate around her, but purposely leaves Joo-won out. She reminds him that he doesn’t eat such things. He complains that she should still offer him some regardless of whether or not he’ll eat it, asking her not to treat him differently.

She counters that being treated differently is what “his people” pay for, remember? Ha. Awesome thing to throw back in his face. One of the guys calls him out for not being a man if he can’t eat this stuff, and Joo-won postures that of course he can, which is right when Ra-im pops a piece in his mouth. Heh. Ra-im: “Chew and swallow.” Joo-won: “NO! I’m gonna melt it down!” Everyone has a good laugh at his expense, including Ra-im.

The next morning, Joo-won wakes up…in Ra-im’s bed. He turns over to find Jong-soo lying next to him. HA. He screams and Ra-im comes running in from the kitchen, and he panics, “Did we swap again?” Heh.

He asks why he’s there, and she tells him to try a little harder to remember last night…which we find out devolved into a drinking contest between Joo-won and Jong-soo. Boys.

They match each other shot for shot, and Joo-won declares drunkenly that he’s going to have breakfast with Ra-im the next morning, and that he’s going to sleep over. Jong-soo says that he can’t. Joo-won: “I’ve slept over plenty of times! You don’t even know.” Haha. Ra-im’s eyes widen in horror, “Hey!”

They end up in front of her place, and Jong-soo stops Joo-won from going in. Joo-won: “What, this is my house! I’ve lived here. I’ve worn her panties. I’ve washed her body. I brushed her teeth three times a day.” OMG I’m dying. How can he say, “I’ve worn her panties” with a straight face??

Jong-soo wakes up, confused as to where he is, tipping Joo-won off that he’s never been here before. Well that shouldn’t be news, given his demeanor with her. As Jong-soo sits down for breakfast, Joo-won washes up, and he peeks out to ask Ra-im if she threw away his toothbrush, and if he can have the blue towel, because he likes that one best. Awkwardly awesome.

The three head back out, only to be encroached upon by a THIRD suitor. Hahaha. This is becoming like a clown car of eligible bachelors. Oska appears, wanting to kidnap Ra-im for a consult on some stuntwork, and she asks Jong-soo for permission to go. He obliges, and she heads off with Oska happily.

Left behind, Joo-won asks why he just let her go. Jong-soo asks why HE didn’t do anything to stop her then. Jong-soo: “Are we…on the same side?” Joo-won wonders why he doesn’t know: the-enemy-of-my-enemy…

Oska asks Ra-im for her help on a CF that he’s shooting, and they go back and forth with their usual level of overly cutesy play-flirting, but this time Oska betrays some sincerity. She’s caught off guard and says that she’s kidding. He knows that she is, but adds that he’s being careful, because he’s growing fond of her…Ruh-roh.

She gets a call from Joo-won’s mother, and heads over to meet her. Ra-im asks tentatively if Joo-won returned the money, and Mom has a fit over her gall, thinking she’s spent they money, and then told Joo-won to pay it back. She curses her for her daring to face off with her, and when Ra-im says that her words are harsh, she grabs her water and tosses it in Ra-im’s face…only Ra-im’s got the reflexes of a stuntwoman, and dodges it swiftly.

Hilariously, she realizes what she did and apologizes, passing HER glass of water over, saying that they can go again. Hahaha. Just then, Joo-won walks in to stop his mother.

You think for a moment that he’s going to be all gallant and noble, except this is what he says:

Joo-won: Why? What for? There’s no reason for you to treat her this way. You’re wasting your energy on something useless. I didn’t say I was marrying this woman. Why are you dragging her here and making her the star of some third-rate drama? If I happen to hang my life or death on her, stop me when that time comes. This is only for a moment. You can’t even wait one moment?

COMMENTS

King of Bastards, Kim Joo-won. My god, I don’t know how on earth you’re going to redeem yourself in her eyes after this. Part of the enjoyment of watching you be such an ass is the light at the end of the tunnel—that we know you’re bound to change, and grow, and STOP being such an ass.

Currently, though you are falling ever deeper in love/obsession/whatever you want to call it, you’re also not growing as a person, and it pisses me off. Don’t get me wrong—I don’t dislike the drama because of this, since I clearly enjoy any chance for Joo-won to get his comeuppance, and I do love his character for all his quirks and lonely isolation. But at this point I’m rooting for Ra-im to stomp on his heart and gleefully skip away.

I love that the momentum of this episode (until the last five minutes) is that Ra-im is gaining the upper hand. She’s free because she doesn’t have the same emotional attachment that Joo-won does, and even if she’s attracted to him, his off-putting personality is enough to nip some of that in the bud. It’s actually hilarious to watch all three men stumble over each other to gain her affections, however ineffectual they may be.

In the end Joo-won is the only one who really gets under her skin, but so far most of that is a beehive of negative vibes, so I don’t blame her for hating him. Theirs will probably go down as one of the great bickering courtships, which I love, but man, if I ever found myself in that kind of relationship in REAL life, it’d be cause for an intervention.

How can a character make me Love him and HATE! him at the same time? seriously!!!!!
When I watched yesterdays episode I felt bad when Ra-im told him he did not love him( even though he definetly deserve it),then watching him do all the crazy things just to be around her,its just too darn cute.
This man can say the most beautiful words to a woman, but at the same time he can say the most degrating and horrible ones. Honestly he does not need an enemy or another contender to win Ra-ims love, he IS HIS OWN ENEMY!!!He digs his own grave with his own mouth!!!!

It can’t get any worse right? for now, I am just waiting to see how he is going to redeem himselft and make me root for him again, because at this point if l was Ra-im(LOL!! I wish) I would beat him up to a pulp and put a restraing order against him.

On another note I love Ra-ims character, she is truly a hard working bad ass woman, no wonder all this man are following her around. There have been other dramas when you see the two typical hot guy falling in love with the main girl FOR NO REASON!!! ok maybe for just being cute and stupid, and make me go seriously?there are no other women around you?

I so agree with you…
in this drama… oska & Jongsoo is really not a rival.

I mean Oska is still hang up on Seul- big time. personally with their backward-upsidedown-rangled-tangled history I end up hoping that one would just shoot the other to stop all their self inflicted pain laced with stupidity. I keep thinking that in love line, wouldnt it be better if they end up in a love triangle with Taesun. (kekeke perverted right) but i like them to fight over Taesun cause that would be EPIC. I’d be rooting for oska-taesun cause frankly whenever they talk i can see/feel tension in the air…

with jongsoo, well clearly he is the typical 2nd male lead, shoulder-to-cry-on, knight-and-shining-armour in the side who always never gets the main lead. I mean I dont get his POV in this story. He is handsome, smart, rich & a gentleman. Why doesnt he make a move on Ra-im..? is it because he highly regards professionalism as a golden rule that confessing to the woman he loves is such a breach of every known contract and moral code..? that is just stupid!!! and he just putting himself in a lot of torture. and that is the part why I will never root for him. that characteristics of his is just unattractive in all female population. how can you get a girl o like you when you yourself put a high high high wall of moral conduct between the 2 of you. and even if there was not that, I think its too cowardly that he wouldnt make a move, i mean they have been working together for the longest time & he didnt make a move.. come on that is just cowardly. however handsome, rich, smart & sexy he maybe, stupidity & cowardice just doesnt bode well with me…

so which points me to JooWon’s real rival.. and like Dramaaddict4ever said. JooWon’s greatest rival/enemy is himself. He just digs his own grave. In the pre-swap episodes i thought his own grave was like already 6ft dug. I thought he could never get lower & deeper. But watching & reading this episode i think he is competing with himself in digging his own grave to reach the core of the earth.
Hmmnn JooWom JooWon JooWon, we all know you lack social skills and have very love metional quotient but that speech right there is just despicable to its EPIC PROPORTIONS.. If i were Ra-Im swear each and every cell in your body to hell/purgatory/devils lair. and after that i’d get a voodoo doll and sever you soul into thousand pieces that even voldemort would envy. then I’d let you live have immortality just so you could suffer forever in lifetimes in this earth…
hahahahaha….

dont get me wrong I love JooWon. I mean Trully madly & deeply. He is the character that has embedded himself in my heart with all his wish-washy mouth, tracksuit-laced get-up and arrogant pompous acts. But that is just me watching from my TV. and HyunBin just made me love him more, million times more for bringing to life joowons character…
^___^

we don’t know that yet. this being JW i doubt that that’s the case. he DID tell Oska that he was just gonna see her for a few months and then break it off. this being JW i doubt that he’d lie (consciously). we all know that hes stupid and doesnt know he wont be able to break it off, but he himself doesnt know that yet.

I agree. he dun seem to be acting in front of his mum 🙁 think he is seriously thinking that he can break it off after a couple of months. He just brush it off as an obession with the ra-im, that after he tried it out, it will be over. Obviously, true love is fairy tale to him.

He also said essentially the same thing to Oska earlier in the episode.

1.3.2 lynxDecember 13th, 2010 at 10:10 AM

am with you on that.

The fact that there’s was that priceless moment of lip quiver and glimmer in his eyes. *heart break* (or am i reading too much into that) makes me sure, that’s his way of living his life – not doing nothing which was his typical response before. Now he’s doing something. And the fact that Ra Im gave him this glare / look of disbelief – makes me sure – U just won no one buddy. Like the row with Seul and Ra Im over the VIP incident.

Agreed with “huh?” above… It’s all just an act of Joo-Woo who knows well enough how to counter his mom in their weird condescending manner just so she could get off Ra-Im’s back for at least a little while. Of course, it did look like he’s hurting Ra-Im even more now which added even more tension between the two. Yet, it’s needed as a ‘common’ k-drama formula.

Remember it’s almost the same tactic he used for accepting the money from his mom when he was Joo-Wonda? He literally explained that to Ra-Im later too why he did that which I thought was pretty smart.

Anyway, this is an excellent episode! So funny yet so touching… Both writing and acting are right on (maybe except that Seul part where she’s again petty enough to line up as a fan to get an autograph just to… Don’t get me started). It’s going to be another loooong week until the next 2 episodes.

I’m with you, Prissypoo and Huh? As JW’s sister told RI, JW is most like his mom, so they understand how each other’s mind works and therefore can counter each other in their (as you put so well) “weird condescending way.” I, like you, also recalled JW’s in-depth explanation of why he accepted the money when he was Joo-Wonda–another instance of his trying to beat his mom at her own game.

I second this. This did make my day. Even though I was refreshing like no ones business last night, i’m glad i didn’t get my fix at 3am, but instead at 5:58 lol. I love this drama, I love Kim Joo-Won even though his meanness is both sexy and just sad. Ugh

So does anyone else think that beautiful mansion Joowon and Oska live in might not have an adequate heating system to back it up? I could have sworn seeing breath clouds while they’re in a room of the wall windows.

🙂 hehe. if you see their behind-the-scene shots, every now and then, production assistants run to them with coats and blankets. the thin layer of clothes are just for cinematic purposes. the shot ain’t gonna look too good with lots of layers of fabric on the actors. 🙂

Yeah, it looks so cold in South Korea during the winter time. I live in northeastern US and while it does get pretty cold up here, I don’t notice anyone getting breath clouds while being INSIDE, like that scene in ep 9 where Joo-won, finally back in his own body, visits Oska. I’ve worked in a building before with little to no heat one February and even then, I didn’t make any breath clouds. It must be so freakin cold for them!

That foam kiss was hot…so jealous!
I love Joo-won, but some of the things he says makes me cringe. Did he have braids or dreads during the Sageuk shoot? I was distracted by the whole get-up. I wouldn’t be surprised if that outfit was probably hand stitched by some European artisans as well.

Seriously, Joo Won’s going to have to go to hell and back at least 10 times to win the girl’s heart at this point. I wonder if the sickness (if there even is one, but I’m referring to what the dad mentioned) is going to be what really turns JW around. After all, the girl’s pretty much done everything. She’s told him to stop seeing her a million times; she said a decently hurtful comment about the Little Mermaid. What is she going to do next to cut him out of her life/make him pay for all of his asshattery?

GF – I know I am being anal but I think the tracksuit was supposedly made by Italians not french…

Thanks for the recap, the video I watched didnt sub the part about the books so I am glad to see the meaning here. I think the writer must be a great reader or the director just likes to use this quiet way of expressing the character’s feelings. (second time already).

Back the the tracksuit, when I first saw it I just knew it will be a precursor to the 2nd body switch because it is so feminine! I think HJW will look great in it.

Is it me or Joo Won’s mother is always styled in some Victorian princess look? hahahha

french or italian… his fashion sense is the window to Joo-Won’s soul. and on this episode he wore a curtain. i have the odd suspicion that we haven’t seen the last of this curtain/lingerie/table-cover of a tracksuit.

About Jong soo recording the script in english….I think it’s purpose is mainly to help Ra im with pronunciation. I think Ra im can read some English, just that people who aren’t adept at the language have some difficulty with correct pronunciation. It’s been said in an earlier episode that Ra im can compete for looks/stunt abilities. Her only difficulty lies with the language.

The print out of (tie-tying) instructions was too cute. JW kept telling Ra im that she never, even for 5 minutes, thought about him. Well, instead of Ra im showing up bedraggled at the department store, she made the effort to look presentable, huh? Even if she had to research about something as mundane (to a “man”) as tie-tying. 🙂

i think, since all the little details were thoughtfully planted by author, they always get pointed out or referred to in later episodes..the bag, the books, the neckerchief…they’ll get their moments later on..watch. LOL I’m just happy that Ra im has all these sassy comebacks for JW’s insensitive comments in the previous episodes. Like she never let’s him get away with his asshattery. Even if it seems that she let’s his thoughtless comments pass at the time JW said them, she calls him out on it later. She’s not little mermaid because she doesn’t “love” the prince…she won’t offer him gopchang (?) because isn’t that what “his” people pay for, that they be treated differently..? And so on.

i totally understand why JW said what he said in that last 5 minutes… IT is because he sincerely thinks that his “obsession” (or so he thinks) with RI will go off.. or else, why did he said that? he’s really a BASTARD (maybe more than that even), tt i totally agree… but then at the same time, he truly and sincerely means what he says and i’m sure RI realises that. JW just puts everything out plainly, as soon as he realises that it is his feelings. the best thing about him is that he doesn’t hide, not like JS. To him, likes and loves are just something he’s not used to and doesn’t understand. But once he gets it, he confesses. That’s y he’s making a big fuss over it and driving RI mad. But i also think that it’s because of this trait that attracted RI to him cos he’s straightforward and not afraid to say it out loud.

i really really want to see how RI will really fall for him. cos seriously, i have to agree that none of his actions are redeeming or amazing enough to get RI to just fall for him. *wonder how the writer will pen change the situation. please dun make it too ridiculous for us* but at the same time, i also want to see how they’ll look like when they are completely honest with one another… so exciting!!!

p.s. i still remember CH’s turning pt was ep 11 when the whole atmosphere just changed and made me just fall in love TOGETHER w MR & CG so much. Total eps for both is 20! Hopefully, the writer’s pattern of writing is similar and we’ll get sthg REALLY gooey next week!!! every stay strong and hang on til next week!

My girl crush HJW was SO awesome in this episode. She was sassy, hilarious, moving (that speech she made to RAT BASTARD aka Joo-won about her fellow stuntpeople remembering her and vice versa…so awesome), and kickass as her character in Damo.

Seriously, I wanted to hit RAT BASTARD so much more than I usually do during this ep. His comeuppance better come soon or heads are gonna roll.

Thanks for the recap. I am with GF, I was enjoying this episode, HY is funny until( the last 5 minutes), I want to strangle JW.
“If I happen to hang my life or death on her”, …… this is going to happen.

surprisingly i could understand what went on with this episode without a single subtitle except for the last part.

gahh, dunno whether to love or to hate joo won, still confused whether he is the antagonist or the protagonist. the writer really gets her revenge on the theorist, i can’t expect what’s in for the next half of this drama. gosh, such a tense wait for next saturday.

Thanks for the recap, GF! Love the foamy kiss but the ending made my heart fall…especially when the strains of “homana..homana..” came on. Right, you ask – how much more do I have to gaze at you alone? – as long as you continue to utter some hurtful words!!

Though I couldn’t bring myself to feel any hate or contempt for JW, the poor bloke just doesn’t know he’s already so deeply in love! – that RI is his ultimate cure, not poison, you crazy mofo kim.

Thanks for recap…so so nicely done.
I loved your description of the soft kiss and belly flips.

I was watching this sitting next to my son. When this kiss came, I kinduv whimpered. So he asked me if someone got hurt…He heard the shattered pieces of my heart crying!
(How’s that for dramatic!)

Your Honor, may I offer my continued defense of Joo Won, Rat Bastard? He does have a plan to win Key Lime, and that involves smoke and mirrors with his 0ma.

He is more knowledgeable about her tactics than he was before the switch. In the past when women he liked disappeared from his life suddenly, as in dissolved into bubbles, he thought it was because they no longer loved/liked him. Now he knows his mother made that happen. So, he has to battle her more carefully.

He is asking his mother to back off in words that an overprotective 0ma needs to hear. “Come on, Mom. You know me. Would I ever marry this? Relax.”

We need mom to relax, so later, “Chan!” something really awesome happens that the writers thought of to make 0ma lose!! I don’t know what it is, but I am sure it will be amazing?!! Right?!!

PS Who thinks that the reason the arcade driving machine came into JW house is because JW will end up in Key Lime’s body driving in some ridiculously dangerous stunt that if he hadn’t had that practice he would have died (in Key Lime’s body.)

oh yeah, smoke and mirrors. jw knows how devious his mom is. pretending not to care about ra im will make her leave ra im alone and give him time to…fall even more in love (lol)? dig his own grave? the thing is, ra im will most likely take his words at face value coz she has no reason to trust him.

In Ep 9 – at Rat B’s office when they switched back handepones, Key Lime yells at him for accepting the money, saying she would have NOT taken it and kept her pride intact.

That’s when Rat B says:
“I took it so you could beat my mother. So that my mother would think you weren’t someone who could be treated like that. I think it was better for me to go instead of you.”

I think he sincerely wants his mother to respect Key Lime, and that he was impressed with how she talked back to his mother the first time at his house. Key Lime had said Joo Won wasn’t good enough for her. because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

I can’t wait to see how Key Lime reacts to Joo Won’s comment. While the last shot she has a hurt expression, I am hoping she will let JW feel the full extent of her disdain.

re: the videogame theory… if that’s what to happen, then maybe the next switch would happen just when Ra-Im’s already in too deep committed to the movie with the dangerous stunt, which would put Joo-Wonda in a situation where he would have to do it for her? are they gonna use the slippery winter roads here?

I like how you think (and write). I’m in agreement, too. And I was trying to figure out why that arcade game came into play–surely it was not just to use as a bargaining chip in JW’s threat to expose those pics of Oska and Chae Rin. Good theory.

Dante,
is HB really a dork in real life? Not just sort of quiet (wanting to keep his private life private) like Go Soo?

I have no idea what they are truly like but they both intrigue me.

Acting-wise I enjoy them both but I think HB has it over GS a little bit-maybe I just enjoy seeing HB in the role’s he has played.

Looks-wise I’d have to say GS but HB’s eyes get me every time.

If anybody can point me to anything written in English about either man away from their acting I’d appreciate it.

Girlfriday,
thanks as always for your recaps and comments. As always you and Javabeans crack me up.

This episode has got me interested more in Joo-won’s psyche as he’s soo self-assured (-you’d have to be to carry off wearing those tracksuits) but is s-l-o-w-l-y getting to realize others may have another point of view.

I’m rooting for an Oska and Ra-im pairing as I’m all ready to woo Joo-won with my cafe latte. Have a quick open umbrella to knock some sense into his mother. (As a consolation) I’m happy for Jong-soo to get with Joo-won’s sister. Tae-sun is just cool on his own so I don’t see a need to pair him up. No need to mention anyone-else is there? Put on a bow on it and it’s a KTB Christmas!

Thank you so much for writing it today. I have been refreshing this page to read this. No dramas was able to motivate me that much. This is the first drama I feel this way. May be Hyun Bin and Ha Ji Won are very great in their acting and I really love the paring…

Even if they won’t become couple in real life (which i want them to be), can they at least make much more dramas together in future???

Joo-won may disagree but for me he IS the Little Mermaid in this story, not Raim. But I don’t think Raim playing the role of “the prince” either. LM didn’t get the prince, instead she got another happy-ending (a better one?), she got awarded as a daughter of air. Here my two cents worth on the whole Little-mermaid-thing in this drama. Please bear with me (and my poor English ^^).

LM is a princess, lives comfortably, has the most beautiful voice and a tail to roam about the ocean aka her comfort zone. JW is the prince in is his life, his wealth and inheritance represents LM’s tail and voice. After meeting with “the prince” LM wants a life as human. LM wants MORE, despite the perfect life that she has. Therefore “The prince” can also be considered as your desire, wanting more, to be a better version of you. “The prince” in this drama for me is JW’s DESIRE to be a better person, to have the guts to stand up to his world and family and to conquer his fears.

On episode 10, he admitted that he’s a coward though he realized the positive influence R has on him (he doesn’t need his medication). And he started to find a clue that R might also interested in him, he found her note on how-to-tie-a-tie. Up to this point he casually thinks that he could leave this “relationship” anytime, since R is not the clingy-type. Will he sacrifice his ‘voice and tail’ (wealth/inheritance) in order to get the girl of his dream? By doing so he’ll be a better man. I have faith that we get there, since Raim is “the reward” of this story (sorry Raim, woman = reward, that’s lame I know). It would be weeeird to have a sad ending after all the laugh. We didn’t laugh our ass off during Romeo and Juliet, that’s why it ended with death, but we did during Twelfth Night and that one ended with wedding. Where’s the role of the soul-swapping in all this. I figure it involving 2nd swap in which Ra-Him gets seriously hurt (probably an accident during a shooting, since JW made his debut as a stuntman too) and Joo-wanda tried to save her. That’s would prompt JW to be one-sexy-gutsy-lover instead of a mere-delusional-conceited-chaebol *still hot though, more shaving scene pls* ^^

I think, Ra-im has also fallen in love with Joo-woo knowingly or unknowingly, why else would she want to find out more about him? She didn’t try to push him away when he hugged her. She is as proud as Joo-woo is to admit, but can’t blame her, Joo-woo has treated her too harshly for her to admit.

Btw, thought that JongSoo recorded the script in English because RaIm asked for his help in English in the prev ep? I had the idea the script is in English. That’s why she had to learn how to speak English. Thus, it makes sense that he had to read out he script for her to practise speaking the lines for the audition.

Also, “he discovers a little memo that Ra-im left behind—a printout of instructions on how to tie a tie.” I thought he was thinking of how different their worlds were because in her world, the guys she knows don’t even need/use ties thus she does not know how to tie them and had to look it up.

I agree on JooWon being a BIG bastard and jerk! Frankly, if I were RaIm, he would have been slapped big-time and treated the same way he intended to treat RaIm. I hope she treats him as a mere plaything and have her “fun” with him before flinging him out with the garbage. But then again, her heart is not as bad as mine so I don’t think that is gonna happen.

I think the character of Joo Won bears no relation to a real person and is written a little too broadly, as if he is in a different movie than the rest of the cast. Too Skinny Binny is however doing a great comedic job with the script.

Maybe he said that because he knows it is the only way for his Mom to leave Ra-Im alone. If he told his Mom that he was falling in love with her then the Mom would probably try make Ra-Ims life horrible. But telling his Mom that she is just a fling will make her back off.

As this moment we love to “hate” Joo Won but I can’t wait to, when the change happens all the comment of him being a jerk or a bastard to how much we like him and how sad we will feel when Gil Ra Im rejects him if that happens..(of course just for a ep or two we have to see him hurt over what he lost..)

I like what the writer doing .. Because I feel that the impact will bee much stronger when Joo Won finally realizes all the hurtful things he said and has done to Gil Ra Im …

Threatening her with kisses for every assault, so that was it! Because I watched episode 10 sans subs, I had no idea that Joo won kept returning to the action school “day after day”. I thought those conversations happened all in the same day and I felt a bit lost when the scene suddenly transferred to the coffee shop and the kiss happened.

Joo won in that commoner outfit…..with this big Mole on his face!!!… insisting on lying on TOP of another dead body…hitting jong soo with that sword. ROFL

Needless to say, Joo won and Jong soo waking up in Ra im’s apartment made me feel like I was in another drama entirely. Thank you so much GF for this recap 😀

I love the ending… HJW is the best actress of the year 2010, when you look at her eyes, you know she’s already the person she’s acting to…

What would be interesting is: hearing what JW said to his MOM, RI would comply with the short term relationship JW is thinking of and be the GF he dreams but with the condition, he’ll be out of her life for good!

But of course JW will not be thrilled because it would all be an act…

I salute to the writer of this drama, she brings us to different levels of expectancy each episode… as well as to the director for bringing the best from everybody!

I give so much credit to GirlFriday because you love what you are doing and you give freely your talents to us here reading your work. What you sow you shall reap! you will receive good things as well in forms you’ll be surprised so CHOW!